Month: October 2017

It seems perfect and hilarious to me that I never ended up completing this post until the Libra New Moon but (now) the timing couldn’t be better for it and a lot of the themes I wanted to discuss with you guys anyway are super prevalent with the current astrological aspects so thank you Universe for the procrastination this week! ha

But now back to the matter at hand, so really, what are you so scared is going to happen if you allow yourself to truly dream BIG, to honor that niggling feeling in the depth of your being and (gasp) speak aloud what you would truly love to do in this one precious life we are living?

If you still are feeling the nerves about the potential to fail then I highly recommend checking out this interview I did for Megan Bruneau’s Failure Factor Podcast where we dive into the ups and downs of failure and why it’s actually super important to ultimate success.

For me, I’ve always been a BIG dreamer, not sure how that happened — you can blame it on the pisces in me, blame it on the crazy in me, blame it on how illogical I am — yet it’s always been an important part of my life. I spent so many years growing up LIVING in my dreams to escape my reality. My big, bold, bright as the sun dreams were my medicine, my saving grace, and in some ways my coping mechanism for whatever life was handing me at the time. So a funny thing happened once my life started feeling more and more like a dream in my mid-twenties, my relationship with my dream changed. I dreamed about living across the country in Santa Monica and so I did it. I dreamed about having a book published and so I did that. And then one fateful day came along and I was in the middle of a group text conversation with a few of my soul sisters and a single, harmless question stopped me in my tracks.

“What would you do if you weren’t so concerned with savings the world?”

Whaaaaaaat?! Wait. Isn’t my only purpose to save the world?! OR at least completely exhaust myself trying?!

No, said the deep voice coming from the peaceful part of my soul — your job is to find what lights you up and do THAT. The whole saving the world, helping people, making an impact, that happens WHEN you are lit up, when you get live your DREAM because that’s how show you people what’s possible for them. “The world needs more people who have come alive.” – famous John Lennon words.

“I would be a cooking show host and write books for the rest of my life.”

There it was. So easy. Like it had been hiding out there all along under blankets of guilt and shame. It had. I was ashamed. I did feel guilty about it. I thought, “I’m a coach, I’m a speaker, I’m a meditation teacher — wanting to host a cooking show is so vain, it’s not as spiritually ‘worthy’.” I was scared to dream. I was scared to even think of my dream to myself no less share it publicly with the world. “What would they think?” “Would people not want to work with me as a coach if they new that as much as I do love that — there was an even bigger dream on the horizon?” “Would I get laughed at or shunned?” Yano, the typical insanity that swirls around our brain right before we are about to own a truth of ours in any really big way.

Yet once it came out of my mouth (or out of my fingers to the text thread), I felt an insane amount of freedom. It was like the clouds parted and the angels started singing because I finally had ALLOWED myself to own my big dream again.

I felt more aligned than ever and I also realized that WHATEVER I did I would be using as a catalyst to spread light so it doesn’t matter if I’m a barista at starbucks, NYT best selling author or a cooking show host. It’s me, I’m light, I’m clear on my message and my mission so I can turn anything into a catalyst for raising consciousness and helping people live their best lives — and guest what? SO CAN YOU.

Which brings me to the first video for you in the “Dreaming to Doing It” series!

I recorded three videos after coming home from the set of Hallmark’s Home and Family TV and having a super fun day at work doing what I love. I just felt super compelled to start talking with you guys about following your dreams AND about how important it is to let those big, juicy dreams of yours see the light of day. This is just the first to get you going, if you want to be the loop for the next two later this week, make sure you are subscribed to my email blast — I’ll be dropping them there!

 

 

 

 

 

Tis’ the season for our favorite flavor of them all… pumpkin spice! Luckily, I teamed up with Lori Corbin from ABC7 news to show you how to get your pumpkin spice on with out all the added sugar and chemicals that come along at some pretty popular chain cafes or restaurants. Making your pumpkin spice treats at home is a sure fire way to get it the healthy way!

 

After all, did you know that pumpkin spice actually does NOT include any sugar?

That’s right. You can make your own Pumpkin Spice at home using just 3 tbsp of cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of nutmeg, 2 teaspoons of ground ginger, 1 1/2 teaspoon of all spice and 1 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves. Now you can even buy “pumpkin spice” already mixed together for you in the spice section of your local grocery store. Put a little shake of this baby in your morning coffee or mix it into your favorite coconut creamer for a healthy, sugar free way to add a little pumpkin spice to your day.

 

Below are two of my favorite ways to celebrate the season, a savory (and super decadent) pumpkin basil cream sauce for your favorite gluten free pasta and my pumpkin spice donuts — both of them so delicious and simple to whip up that you will have a hard time believing just how nourishing they are for your body! Enjoy!

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PROTEIN + FIBER PACKED PUMPKIN BASIL CREAM SAUCE

1 can of cannelloni beans

1 can of organic lite coconut milk

1 can of organic pumpkin puree

1 tbsp of Pumpkin Pie Spice (more if needed after you taste)

handful of fresh basil and 1 tbsp of dried spice shaker basil

1/2 white onion, chopped and sautéed with olive oil

1 bulb of garlic, chopped and sautéed with olive oil

1 tbsp of EVOO

Salt, Pepper to taste

This simple a decadent Pumpkin Basil Cream Sauce recipe is easy for you to whip up in minutes. If you don’t have fresh onion and garlic on hand to brown in a frying pan with a little olive oil, you can also use onion powder and garlic powder to taste to help with the savory flavor. Combine all your ingredients together in a food processor or high powered blender. Taste the sauce and add more basil, pumpkin pie spice or salt and pepper till you get the perfect sweet and savory balance for you!

Ladle it over your favorite gluten free pasta, I love brown rice penne as shown here but whatever your usual go to is will work fine!

 

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HEALTHY VEGAN PUMPKIN SPICE DONUTS
2 cups of trader joe’s whole grain baking mix ( you can use any baking /biscuit mix – for gluten free try Bob’s Red Mill’s!)
1 cup of organic pumpkin puree
3 tbsp of coconut oil
2 flaxs -‘eggs’ (2 tsp flaxseed meal + 6 tsp of water whisked)
3 tsps of pumpkin pie spice (or to your taste, I like a lot of spice!)
1 tsp of vanilla extract
—— dust top with coconut sugar + pumpkin pie spice OR crushed cacao nibs———
Super easy to make! Whip all ingredients in together in your mixer, place in a pastry bag (or a ziploc baggy that you cut a corner off! 😉 ) for easiest dispensing into your doughnut pan and bake in the oven on 375 degrees until golden on the edges. Plop out on cooling rack and sprinkle your dusting ingredients to your liking! Enjoy! Tag me on your photos when you make them and I’ll repost some of my favs!

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For me, I am learning that inspiration is an inside job right now.

It feels almost naughty to say that. To admit that I am finding a lot of things “out there” less than inspiring. But in fact, it’s my truth at the moment. I have found over the past couple years that I no longer look to other people for inspiration, instead, it’s in the quiet spaces of my own soul where my ideas blossom, where new projects take root and where I truly get lit up and energized to take action.

I find myself weighed down by so much of the content swimming around on social media and the web these days. It feels overwhelming at best and inauthentic at it’s worst. I am in no way saying that there aren’t still lots of amazing people doing incredible, inspirational work in the world — I KNOW THERE ARE. However, right now, for me, I have found in this season of my life that I am not called to watch others to fan my flames.

I love the book, “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield, I recommended it to all my LightMaker Book Club ladies because I think it’s a great companion for the creative process. Steven talks a lot about “showing up” and allowing the muse to find you ready and working. At first, as a crazy romantic creative type, I found this absolutely annoying. I don’t “force” anything, I wait for inspiration. Ah, what a beginner’s notion! If there is anything that having successfully ran a coaching business for five years, written an internationally published book and doing countless videos, events and blogs have taught me is that if you don’t make the time for the muse, she will actually never appear. Inspiration needs space, it needs you sitting at your desk or on the beach with a notebook ready, it needs you to show up and say “please use me as a vessel”.

 

I believe that it’s our job to create the conditions for inspiration. We can constantly be listening to what our soul’s voice is rumbling about and we need to give ourselves permission to follow it.

 

So if spending time reading certain blogs you love, flipping through magazines or stalking your favorite inspirational yogis on instagram gets your juices flowing and gets you excited to dive into whatever endeavour you have in front of you, then please by all means schedule that on your calendar. And if what inspires you is nature, hiking, the beach, post-meditation journaling sessions and juicy gaps between social media consumption (like where I’m at right now) that’s okay too.

Either way, inspiration is an inside job.

It’s inside because only YOU can know what’s truly working for you. Only you can honor the season you are in right now. I have found a lot of time that inspiration comes from me flexing my creative muscles in a totally different area: if I’m struggling to create new recipes than maybe I give myself a day away and go to a pottery painting workshop or walk through the farmers market and allow myself to only buy weird, beautiful looking vegetables that I haven’t tried before. If I’m deciding on creating a new offering, I sit with it, I beach walk with it, I throw myself into something else like laundry or cleaning and allow it to creep back in if it’s truly ripe for the making.

Creating the environment for inspiration is not about forcing, it’s actually about creating the space for allowing. And yes, sometimes that looks like staring at your computer screen and writing jibber jabber for a few mornings before your book starts coming out and other times it’s allowing yourself to admit that something is NOT inspiring you.

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I have found this the hardest. The letting go of what’s no longer inspiring me. I have now realized that when it’s aligned, it does feel inspiring, sometimes it can require a lot of work, getting outside my comfort zone or an extra notch of discipline but if it’s truly aligned, it also feels inspired.  And that means when it doesn’t, I can release it.

 

Where are you with your creative process? What do you find helps you get those sparks flying and your energy a-buzz?

I would love to hear from you below in the comments!

xo,

C

 

** Even though it’s too late to join the LightMaker Book Club, if you’d like help creating the space and birthing your creative project or book into the world, feel free to reach out for a one on one breakthrough session. I’d love to midwife your dream.**